The Intelligent Reading Specialist
Issued by Leanlab Education
LUCA holds the Codesign Product Certification from Leanlab Education, awarded only to companies that complete a research study with real classrooms and incorporate at least 75 percent of the resulting teacher and student recommendations. Most edtech tools are designed for educators. LUCA was rebuilt with them.
Trusted by schools and backed by leading research institutions
The Codesign Product Certification, issued by Leanlab Education, is open to all companies that complete a research study with Leanlab and make product modifications based on user feedback. It is meant to assess a company's ongoing commitment to the values of codesign, building products with, not for, the communities they impact.
The certification is intentionally hard to earn. Companies must submit evidence that their product was, is, and will continue to be designed with the people it serves. Recipients are listed in third-party indexes alongside other certified products.
Reading interventions fail when nobody asked the teacher.
The 256 to 1 student to specialist ratio is not a marketing line. It is the daily reality of every educator we partnered with. Codesign forced LUCA to absorb that reality and rebuild the cycle around it. Teachers shaped the dashboard. Families shaped the home loop. Students shaped the stories. The result is a tool that fits where it lives.
At the end of every Leanlab study, the company receives an Action Plan, a list of product recommendations from teachers and students. To earn the Codesign Product Certification, a company must provide evidence that they have incorporated, at minimum, 75 percent of those recommendations. Lower numbers do not qualify.
Step One
Teachers, reading specialists, and students participate in a structured study with Leanlab observers. Feedback is collected formally, not anecdotally.
Step Two
Leanlab synthesizes the study into a list of concrete product recommendations. The company does not edit or curate that list. It is what teachers and students actually said.
Step Three
Where LUCA Earned ItSubmit evidence that 75 percent or more of the recommendations made it into the product. LUCA did. The dashboard, the family loop, and the story system all changed because of this study.
Phoneme-level error data was originally aggregated at the class level. Reading specialists asked for student level visibility with a cleaner mapping to MTSS tiers. We rebuilt the educator dashboard around their workflow, not ours.
Parents told us mobile notifications felt like another reminder app. We moved to a weekly summary cadence, with celebration moments tied to milestones. Engagement stayed high; family fatigue dropped.
Children asked for more agency in choosing characters, themes, and story length. StoryGen now generates within student-selected interests. Engagement metrics on student-chosen stories outperform default themes.
See the full pilot methodology and outcome detail on the results page and the evidence page.
Leanlab Education is an independent, Kansas City based education research nonprofit. They run codesign studies between edtech companies and real classrooms, then evaluate products against the ESSA Tiers of Evidence. Their certifications are listed in third-party directories, including the ISTE Edtech Index, so the verdict travels with the intervention.
Leanlab does not do marketing partnerships. They run real research with real teachers and real students. Companies that ignore the resulting feedback do not earn the badge. That is what makes a yes worth referencing.
It is awarded by Leanlab Education to edtech companies that complete a research study with teachers and students, then incorporate at least 75 percent of the resulting product recommendations. It verifies that a product was designed with the people it serves, not simply for them.
Reading interventions fail when they are built around what is convenient for engineers rather than what works in a classroom or at a kitchen table. Codesign forces the product to absorb feedback from teachers, reading specialists, families, and students, so adoption matches design intent.
Recommendations spanned the entire cycle. Teachers asked for clearer phoneme error breakdowns at the student level. Families wanted progress visibility without app fatigue. Students asked for more agency over story themes and characters. Each thread shipped as a product change.
No. They are different certifications from the same issuing body. ESSA Tier IV verifies the strength of the research foundation and active study plan. The Codesign Product Certification verifies that LUCA was iteratively shaped by teacher and student feedback. LUCA holds both.
Yes. Codesign is not a one-time check. Every major release includes feedback loops with active pilot teachers, reading specialists, and student users. The certification reflects the practice, not just the moment.
The Codesign Product Certification document from Leanlab Education is available on request. Contact LUCA at hello@luca.ai for the credential PDF and a summary of the recommendations that were incorporated.
Pilot LUCA, see the codesign-driven dashboard, and tell us what should change next. We will keep listening.